Gosh, Tongan supporters getting into party mood in Hamilton this evening - in fact we gave up working from about 4 pm as they were making that much racket!

This was part of the welcome at Auckland airport - the Tongans that is.

It was expected, there's more Tongans in Auckland, or in fact in Papatoetoe alone (the South Auckland suburb next to the airport), than there are in Tonga. You certainly don't see anything Kiwi driving through there on the way to the airport!

41-10 it finished. I think the All Blacks will be disappointed with that. Gave away a lot of penalties, dropped the ball more times than they should in perfect weather and conceded a try. They've never scored less than 70 points against Tonga in all their previous meetings and they've usually scored virtually every time they've had the ball in those past games. Couple of nice tries really didn't create anything at all in the 2nd half. Don't think they looked unbeatable for some of the other top sides to be honest.

I'm a "Kiwi that talks funny" (Still got the accent -- they reckon the Scots never lose their accent and, after 47 years away, I'm starting to believe the bas----s!) Until I hear the pipes -- or watch Braveheart again -- when something irrepressible and undeniably "Back Hameish" swells up in me and I know, without doubt, in my heart-of-hearts, I'll always be a Scot!

Amazing, isn't it. I mentioned to you my grandmother's relatives emigrating to NZ and Oz at the beginning of the last century. I remember meeting one of her cousins, who must have been about your age when he left Scotland. He was then in his early 70s and his Scots accent was like he'd lived here all his life - and he did brilliant impersonations of Harry Lauder!

By the way, watching that video clip I posted really got me fired up for this World Cup. Of course I remembered all the players' names, but there was something about listening to Bill McLaren again - he had such an enthusiasm for the sport that it's infectious. He made it come alive like no other commentator I've ever heard in any sport, and his commentaries were always peppered with his wonderful dry sense of humour.

Indeed - and it was through listening to his commentaries on the radio when I was in my teens that got me interested in rugby in the first place. That and my first visit to Murrayfield for a Scotland/Wales match which Scotland won 6-3. Remember it like it was yesterday.

That was expected, transport in Auckland is absolutely abysmal and the city was never going to cope with that amount of people. Also Eden Park is in such a terrible location. Unless you live walking distance it's an absolute nightmare to get to because you can't park anywhere within a reasonable distance and there's no public transport nearby either.

My brother didn't go into the waterfront fanzone in the end. He said there was such bad behaviour with drunks and fighting and everything so he watched it from the balcony of hsi friend's office for safety instead.

Didn't get a ticket for South Africa-Wales as they only have the ridiculous expensive $300 ones left but got one for Argentina-Scotland on the 25th as they had some decent priced ones still going.

Just watched Romania almost beat Scotland. It was a really good game, Romania were absolutely all over them in the 2nd half and scored a try to go 24-21 up with 12. Scotland didn't get their hands on the ball until the 70th minute and managed to grab 2 late tries as their experience shone through. Shame for Romania, it would have been an incredible result. Scotland looked really pony and will have to improve a shitload if they want a chance of going through to the quarter finals.

God, I'm sick of hearing about New Zealand in the rugby already! How much news time does it need to say that they won? Bucket loads apparently. The AB's are now heading my way as they play at Waikato stadium on Friday vs Japan.

Saw the national anthems in Scotland's match but went out for coffee in the glorious sunshine that we had today. Did hear that Scotland were lucky to scrape a victory.